Close call as car catches fire with 'Top Gear' hosts inside

Top Gear‘s Chris Harris and Eddie Jordan took on the famous Monte Carlo Rally in the new Alpine A110. The car is based on the original 110, which Renault quit building in the 1970s. It was hoped that the new version, weighing less than 2,500 pounds, would smoke the competition, but that dream went up in flames.

The aluminum prototype from France initially appeared to do well on the course. But as Harris recounted, “I’d literally been driving it for a few minutes … warning light comes on the dashboard, something about ‘Electrical failure.’ ‘Stop.’ Power cuts almost immediately, and the first time I knew it was on fire was when I opened the car door and the flames licked straight up my arm.”

Though the car was engulfed, no one was injured. Alpine released a statement saying, “This isolated fire incident was caused by a fuel leak. Robust measures have been put in place to ensure that such an incident cannot reoccur.”